We followed your advice, now we need to - Posted by Sandy

Posted by Kent Cheatham on June 22, 2001 at 22:30:38:

Well I know if the house is deemed un-inhabitable the tenant can open a special account or use a third party to deposit his rents with, until you make repairs.
But they rarely do this. Continue on to court.

The worst that can happen is the judge will make him pay up once repairs are done. Is this what you asked?

Also, I dont like letting tenants make “major repairs”.

kent

We followed your advice, now we need to - Posted by Sandy

Posted by Sandy on June 22, 2001 at 22:07:57:

This story will sound familiar. Habitual late payer, insurance claim on roof. David posted about this. We have done the forfeiture, the 3 day notice and now we have a court date. This is the guy who wants to put on the roof himself.

He has been trying to exchange checks with us for the insurance money. Reality is he didn’t have the money and was going to use our check to make his good. David told him no that he had to get the payment in and then we will deal with the roof. Payment in the form of a cashier’s check or money order only.

No money has arrived yet. Our court date is the 3rd of July. At that point there will be another payment due.

The Big Question:

In order to stop these 30 day late payments, are we required to accept payment of what was on the 3 day notice or can we, since another payment will be due require July’s payment also to reinstate? We expected the court date to fall before the end of the month.

The reality is that this guy has been quite difficult for a long time. We are ready for him to get it together or get out. I really need to know if we have to reinstate.

Thanks All

Re: We followed your advice, now we need to - Posted by Jim IL

Posted by Jim IL on June 23, 2001 at 15:44:01:

Sandy,
Okay, so you have the funds from the insurance company for the roof already right?
when you goto court, the tenant may state that he has the rent, but has not paid because the roof is not repaired.
Simple, you’ve already told the tenant the roof will be repaired, so get it done. You need to do this anyway, no matter what happens with him.
You can tell him, “No, we do not hire tenants for our repairs, we have others we use.”
When you get to court, it may help to have an appointment set, and something in writing showing that the roof is “Scheduled” for repair. (or started already if it is.)
This should help.
And, if the tenant was served a 3 day and did not pay in time, then you do not have to accept his rent any longer. (check your state laws to verify this of course.)
Since the July rent will be due soon, you may be able to add this to the claim against the tenant in court, they call this an amendment in my state.

After getting burned a few times for being a nice landlord, and according to my new wife, “Soft on the tenants”, I nom longer tolerate any late pays, or lease violations. If I were in your shoes, I’d just get him out and find a new better tenant. It is summer, so this should not be a problem.

Good luck, and let us know how it goes,
Jim IL

If it is before, just go for an order to vacate the home, and take possession back. IF the judge gives the guy some time to move, ask about the rent for the time he is there, this may be added to the judgement.